Marks & Spencer has reported a 0.7% drop in like-for like UK sales over the first three months of the year after admitting it ran out of stock on some of its best-selling lines of womenswear.
The chain, which operates more than 700 stores in the UK, said non-food sales, which had been expected to return to growth in 2012, were down by 2.8% on a same-store basis.
But like-for-like sales of food were up by 1%, and total group sales rose 0.8% in the 13 weeks to March 31.
M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said problems with its womenswear stock meant that it sold 100,000 items of knitwear in the period, whereas it could have sold three times that many, after it was caught out by the... read more